Welcome to the first edition of Moneyball Monday, where we will talk about a topic regarding advanced data or information about baseball. This week’s topic is Spin Rate. Major League Baseball defines Spin Rate as the rate of spin on a baseball after it is released. It is measured in revolutions per minute (mlb.com). The Central College Baseball Program is able to track a pitcher’s spin rate using the Rapsodo 2.0 pitching monitor. This allows us to track a pitcher’s spin rate over time to make sure the pitcher is getting the most out of their pitches.
The more spin a ball has means the ball will rise. A lower spin rate means the ball will sink. Let’s take a look at the spin rate of a fastball and a curveball thrown by a Central pitcher.
Starting with the fastball, a fastball will have backspin which gives the ball its rise when it is released. Below is Rapsodo data for a fastball which shows its backspin that will fight gravity to rise, and a spin rate of 2265 RPM. As you can see the backspin forced the ball to finish in the high middle section of the plate.
Now, let's take a look at the spin rate of a curveball. A low spin rate means the ball will be lower. This is caused by the forward spin which gravity will help force the ball down on the plate. This curveball had forward spin and ended up in the lower middle part of the plate. This curveball had a spin rate of 2655 RPM.
Rapsodo teamed up with MLB and provided Rapsodo monitors to each major league team. Rapsodo revealed the data they captured and found the average spin rate of a major league fastball was 2250-2350 RPM and the spin rate of a major league curveball was between 2500-2600 RPM. Both of these examples were in or above the average spin rate. Below is the full graphic of the MLB data that Rapsodo released in a tweet:
Source: twitter.com/rapsodo
To recap, a high spin rate means that the ball will go over the bat and a low spin rate means the ball will miss under the bat or at least induce a groundball. We hope you enjoyed this Moneyball Monday. Next week we will take on a new topic.
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